Common Grace (Volume 2) E-Book

Abraham Kuyper

• Herausgeber: Lexham Press
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Serie: Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 1784

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

Common Grace is often considered Abraham Kuyper's crowning work, an exploration of how God expresses grace even to the unsaved. Kuyper firmly believed that though many people in the world will remain unconverted, God's grace is still shown to the world as a whole. The second volume of Common Grace contains Kuyper's doctrinal exploration of the impact and implications of this aspect of Reformed theology.Never before published in English, this translation of Common Grace is now available as part of a 12-volume series of Kuyper's most important writings on public theology. Created in partnership with the Kuyper Translation Society and the Acton Institute, the Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology will deepen and enrich the church's understanding of public theology in today's world.

Leseprobe

COMMON GRACE

GOD’S GIFTS FOR A FALLEN WORLD

Volume 2: The Doctrinal Section

ABRAHAM

KUYPER

Edited by Jordan J. Ballor and J. Daryl Charles

Translated by Nelson D. Kloosterman and Ed M. van der Maas

Introduction by Craig J. Bartholomew

Common Grace: God’s Gifts for a Fallen World

Volume 2: The Doctrinal Section

Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology

Copyright 2019 Acton Institute for the Study of Religion & Liberty

Lexham Press, 1313 Commercial St., Bellingham, WA 98225

LexhamPress.com

You may use brief quotations from this resource in presentations, articles, and books. For all other uses, please write Lexham Press for permission. Email us at [e-mail].

Originally published as De Gemeene Gratie. Tweede Deel. Het Leerstellig Gedeelte. © Boekhandel voorheen Höveker & Wormser, 1902.

This translation previously published by Christian’s Library Press, an imprint of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion & Liberty, 98 E. Fulton Street, Grand Rapids, MI, 49503.

Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (KJV) are from the King James Version. Public domain.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Scripture quotations marked (SV) are from the Statenvertaling (“States Translation” of the Dutch Bible, 1637). Public domain.

Print ISBN 9781577996699

Digital ISBN 9781577996958

Translators: Nelson D. Kloosterman, Ed M. van der Maas

Acton Editorial: Jordan J. Ballor, Stephen J. Grabill, Timothy J. Beals, Paul J. Brinkerhoff, Eduardo J. Echeverria, Andrew M. McGinnis, Dylan Pahman

Lexham Editorial: Brannon Ellis, Justin Marr, Stephen Kline

Cover Design: Christine Gerhart

Back Cover Design: Brittany Schrock

ABRAHAM

KUYPER

Collected Works in Public Theology

GENERAL EDITORS

JORDAN J. BALLOR

MELVIN FLIKKEMA

ABRAHAMKUYPER.COM

CONTENTS

General Editors’ Introduction

Editors’ Introduction

Volume Introduction

Abbreviations

Chapter One: The Purpose of this Doctrinal Inquiry

Chapter Two: The Problem to Be Solved

Chapter Three: The Problem Further Elucidated

Chapter Four: The Solution according to Unbelievers

Chapter Five: Why Is this Solution Unsatisfactory?

Chapter Six: The Solution from the Roman Catholic Side

Chapter Seven: The Reformed Point of Departure

Chapter Eight: The Tempering of Sin

Chapter Nine: The Anabaptist Solution

Chapter Ten: The Unbridled Operation of the Curse

Chapter Eleven: Common Grace Grounded in Creation

Chapter Twelve: Common Grace and Predestination

Chapter Thirteen: Predestination in Connection with “All Things”

Chapter Fourteen: The Connection between Predestination and Creation

Chapter Fifteen: Triumph over Satan

Chapter Sixteen: He Dwelt among Us

Chapter Seventeen: He Dwelt among Israel

Chapter Eighteen: Born of a Woman

Chapter Nineteen: Jesus’ Increase

Chapter Twenty: Jesus’ Environment

Chapter Twenty-One: Jesus and Rome’s Administration of Justice

Chapter Twenty-Two: Jesus and the Preparation of the World

Chapter Twenty-Three: Christ and World History

Chapter Twenty-Four: The Fullness of Time

Chapter Twenty-Five: Common Grace and the Life of Grace

Chapter Twenty-Six: Preparatory Grace

Chapter Twenty-Seven: Immediate Regeneration

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Common Grace in Our Genealogy

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Common Grace in Our Upbringing

Chapter Thirty: Vocation and One’s Lot in Life

Chapter Thirty-One: The Means of Grace

Chapter Thirty-Two: The Effect of Particular Grace on Common Grace

Chapter Thirty-Three: The Church as Institution and as Organism

Chapter Thirty-Four: The National Church

Chapter Thirty-Five: The Effect of the Church on the World

Chapter Thirty-Six: A City Set on a Hill

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Common Grace in Sanctification

Chapter Thirty-Eight: The Grafting of the Wild Tree

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Moral Good in the Unregenerate

Chapter Forty: Two Kinds of Self

Chapter Forty-One: The Twofold Will

Chapter Forty-Two: It Is God Who Sanctifies Us

Chapter Forty-Three: Self-Purification

Chapter Forty-Four: The Conduct of Believers in the World

Chapter Forty-Five: A Necessary and Dangerous Dualism

Chapter Forty-Six: The Ordinary and the Extraordinary

Chapter Forty-Seven: Common Grace and God’s Providential Ordination

Chapter Forty-Eight: The Counsel of God

Chapter Forty-Nine: Transcendence and Immanence

Chapter Fifty: Providence and Creation

Chapter Fifty-One: Bound Yet Free

Chapter Fifty-Two: God’s Working through Means

Chapter Fifty-Three: The Spiritual Forces of Evil

Chapter Fifty-Four: The Manifestation of God’s Wrath

Chapter Fifty-Five: Second Nature

Chapter Fifty-Six: The Tempering of the Curse

Chapter Fifty-Seven: Nature Is Not Irreligious

Chapter Fifty-Eight: Man and Animal

Chapter Fifty-Nine: Instinctive Action

Chapter Sixty: The Use of Means

Chapter Sixty-One: Against the Curse

Chapter Sixty-Two: Rebuke and Wrath

Chapter Sixty-Three: Death Is an Enemy to Be Opposed

Chapter Sixty-Four: The Unholy Character of All Affliction

Chapter Sixty-Five: Curse and Creation

Chapter Sixty-Six: Derailment

Chapter Sixty-Seven: The Flood and the Ark

Chapter Sixty-Eight: Finding the Means

Chapter Sixty-Nine: Precautionary Measures

Chapter Seventy: Suffering as Solidarity

Chapter Seventy-One: The Vaccination against Cowpox (1)

Chapter Seventy-Two: The Vaccination against Cowpox (2)

Chapter Seventy-Three: Insurance

Chapter Seventy-Four: Insurance (2)

Chapter Seventy-Five: Insurance (3)

Chapter Seventy-Six: Insurance (4)

Chapter Seventy-Seven: Insurance (5)

Chapter Seventy-Eight: Insurance (6)

Chapter Seventy-Nine: Insurance (7)

Chapter Eighty: Suffering and Guilt

Chapter Eighty-One: The Course of the Ages

Chapter Eighty-Two: The Close of the Age

Chapter Eighty-Three: The Manifestation of the Image of God

Chapter Eighty-Four: The Two Spheres of Life Intermingled

Chapter Eighty-Five: The Contact between the Spheres

Chapter Eighty-Six: Common Grace and the Son of God

Chapter Eighty-Seven: The Elect to Eternal Life

Chapter Eighty-Eight: The Purpose of the Church on Earth

Chapter Eighty-Nine: Christian Civilization

Chapter Ninety: The Completion of Common Grace

Chapter Ninety-One: The Influences of Common Grace on Particular Grace

Bibliography

About the Contributors

Subject/Author Index

Scripture Index

GENERAL EDITORS’ INTRODUCTION

In times of great upheaval and uncertainty, it is necessary to look to the past for resources to help us recognize and address our own contemporary challenges. While Scripture is foremost among these foundations, the thoughts and reflections of Christians throughout history also provide us with important guidance. Because of his unique gifts, experiences, and writings, Abraham Kuyper is an exemplary guide in these endeavors.

Kuyper (1837–1920) is a significant figure both in the history of the Netherlands and modern Protestant theology. A prolific intellectual, Kuyper founded a political party and a university, led the formation of a Reformed denomination and the movement to create Reformed elementary schools, and served as the prime minister of the Netherlands from 1901 to 1905. In connection with his work as a builder of institutions, Kuyper was also a prolific author. He wrote theological treatises, biblical and confessional studies, historical works, social and political commentary, and devotional materials.

Believing that Kuyper’s work is a significant and underappreciated resource for Christian public witness, in 2011 a group of scholars interested in Kuyper’s life and work formed the Abraham Kuyper Translation Society. The shared conviction of the society, along with the Acton Institute, Kuyper College, and other Abraham Kuyper scholars, is that Kuyper’s works hold great potential to build intellectual capacity within the church in North America, Europe, and around the world. It is our hope that translation of his works into English will make his insights accessible to those seeking to grow and revitalize communities in the developed world as well as to those in the global south and east who are facing unique challenges and opportunities.

The church today—both locally and globally—needs the tools to construct a compelling and responsible public theology. The aim of this translation project is to provide those tools—we believe that Kuyper’s unique insights can catalyze the development of a winsome and constructive Christian social witness and cultural engagement the world over.

In consultation and collaboration with these institutions and individual scholars, the Abraham Kuyper Translation Society developed this 12-volume translation project, the Abraham Kuyper Collected Works in Public Theology. This multivolume series collects in English translation Kuyper’s writings and speeches from a variety of genres and contexts in his work as a theologian and statesman. In almost all cases, this set contains original works that have never before been translated into English. The series contains multivolume works as well as other volumes, including thematic anthologies.

The series includes a translation of Kuyper’s Our Program (Ons Program), which sets forth Kuyper’s attempt to frame a Christian political vision distinguished from the programs of the nineteenth-century Modernists who took their cues from the French Revolution. It was this document that launched Kuyper’s career as a pastor, theologian, and educator. As James Bratt writes, “This comprehensive Program, which Kuyper crafted in the process of forming the Netherlands’ first mass political party, brought the theology, the political theory, and the organization vision together brilliantly in a coherent set of policies that spoke directly to the needs of his day. For us it sets out the challenge of envisioning what might be an equivalent witness in our own day.”

Also included is Kuyper’s seminal three-volume work De Gemeene Gratie, or Common Grace, which presents a constructive public theology of cultural engagement rooted in the humanity Christians share with the rest of the world. Kuyper’s presentation of common grace addresses a gap he recognized in the development of Reformed teaching on divine grace. After addressing particular grace and covenant grace in other writings, Kuyper here develops his articulation of a Reformed understanding of God’s gifts that are common to all people after the fall into sin.

The series also contains Kuyper’s three-volume work on the lordship of Christ, Pro Rege. These three volumes apply Kuyper’s principles in Common Grace, providing guidance for how to live in a fallen world under Christ the King. Here the focus is on developing cultural institutions in a way that is consistent with the ordinances of creation that have been maintained and preserved, even if imperfectly so, through common grace.

The remaining volumes are thematic anthologies of Kuyper’s writings and speeches gathered from the course of his long career.

The anthology On Charity and Justice includes a fresh and complete translation of Kuyper’s “The Problem of Poverty,” the landmark speech Kuyper gave at the opening of the First Christian Social Congress in Amsterdam in 1891. This important work was first translated into English in 1950 by Dirk Jellema; in 1991, a new edition by James Skillen was issued. This volume also contains other writings and speeches on subjects including charity, justice, wealth, and poverty.

The anthology On Islam contains English translations of significant pieces that Abraham Kuyper wrote about Islam, gathered from his reflections on a lengthy tour of the Mediterranean world. Kuyper’s insights illustrate an instructive model for observing another faith and its cultural ramifications from an informed Christian perspective.

The anthology On the Church includes selections from Kuyper’s doctrinal dissertation on the theologies of Reformation theologians John Calvin and John à Lasco. It also includes various treatises and sermons, such as “Rooted and Grounded,” “Twofold Fatherland,” and “Address on Missions.”

The anthology On Business and Economics contains various meditations Kuyper wrote about the evils of the love of money as well as pieces that provide Kuyper’s thoughts on stewardship, human trafficking, free trade, tariffs, child labor, work on the Sabbath, and business.

Finally, the anthology On Education includes Kuyper’s important essay “Bound to the Word,” which discusses what it means to be ruled by the Word of God in the entire world of human thought. Numerous other pieces are also included, resulting in a substantial English volume of Kuyper’s thoughts on Christian education.

Collectively, this 12-volume series will, as Richard Mouw puts it, “give us a much-needed opportunity to absorb the insights of Abraham Kuyper about God’s marvelous designs for human cultural life.”

The Abraham Kuyper Translation Society along with the Acton Institute and Kuyper College gratefully acknowledge the Andreas Center for Reformed Scholarship and Service at Dordt College; Calvin College; Calvin Theological Seminary; Fuller Theological Seminary; Mid-America Reformed Seminary; Redeemer University College; Princeton Theological Seminary; and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. Their financial support and partnership made these translations possible. The society is also grateful for the generous financial support of Dr. Rimmer and Ruth DeVries and the J. C. Huizenga family, which has enabled the translation and publication of these volumes.

This series is dedicated to Dr. Rimmer DeVries in recognition of his life’s pursuits and enduring legacy as a cultural leader, economist, visionary, and faithful follower of Christ who reflects well the Kuyperian vision of Christ’s lordship over all spheres of society.

Jordan J. Ballor

Melvin Flikkema

Grand Rapids, MI

August 2015

EDITORS’ INTRODUCTION

Abraham Kuyper’s doctrine of common grace is one of the most significant, and controversial, aspects of the great theologian’s legacy. This multi-volume translation of his exhaustive treatment of the doctrine is intended to provide deeper insights into the motivations for, reasoning in, and implications for Kuyper’s understanding of this crucial, and oft-misunderstood, element of divine action.1 For Kuyper, common grace was clearly grounded in Scripture and was taught but not fully developed in the historic Reformed faith. In addition to these biblical and historical reasons for articulating his teaching on common grace, there were doctrinal and apologetic reasons as well. In doctrinal terms, common grace was necessary for a full understanding both of special, saving grace as well as for the underlying continuity of God’s faithfulness to his creation. At the same time, common grace also served an explanatory function, helping us to understand how there can so often be such genius and goodness in the world of unbelievers. These diverse foundations of common grace lead to an understanding of the moral significance of common grace as well, which involves the natural law, civic righteousness, and social order.

FOUNDATIONS OF COMMON GRACE

First and foremost, for Kuyper the doctrine of common grace was biblical, and like Reformed theologians before him, Kuyper was determined not to be silent where Scripture provided positive witness.2Calvin, when discussing the grace that characterized God’s general relationship to his fallen creatures, refers to Matthew 5:45, which says God “makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.”3 This verse is significant as well for Kuyper, but the main biblical foundation for Kuyper’s exposition of common grace is the Noahic covenant, which Kuyper describes as the doctrine’s “fixed historical starting point.”4 The fact that Kuyper’s biblical exposition of common grace begins with Noah rather than Adam underscores his understanding that common grace is a post-fall necessity, and thus a kind of divine action that is only possible in light of sin.

As the first volume of this trilogy focuses on the biblical foundations of the doctrine, the second takes its point of departure in the historical grounding of the doctrine. That is, Kuyper defends his attention to common grace, which passes three quarters of a million words over the three volumes, by pointing out that the Reformers recognized and affirmed the reality of common grace, but given their context did not develop and fully explicate it. An important element of the second volume is thus Kuyper’s articulation of a precedent for his understanding in the writings of the Reformers and Reformed confessional standards, particularly the Canons of Dort.5 Even though he thought the treatment of common grace in the era of the Reformation was underdeveloped, Kuyper understood that it was this way for a legitimate reason. As he put it, the controversy at the time had more to do specifically with the doctrines of salvation and special grace, and so it was natural for the Reformers to spend much of their energy developing and debating the topics that were of the most salience at the time. “Every period cannot do everything at once,” contends Kuyper, “and it was entirely correct that in the days of the Reformation, theologians saved their time and strength for elucidating those contrasts that were of primary importance in that period. Had they acted differently, they might have misjudged their calling for the time in which they lived.”6

In his own time, however, Kuyper judges that it is past time for more attention to be paid to common grace. This should be, in part, the natural outworking of focus on special grace, which can only fully and rightly understood within the context of common grace. Because of the relationship between the work of God in creation, the age of human fallenness, redemption and restoration of the world, and the consummation of God’s providential purposes, the work of special grace which involves regeneration and reconciliation must be connected to God’s original purposes in creation. These purposes have been maintained and preserved, even in the midst of corruption and sin, through common grace. Thus, observes Kuyper, speaking of this gift of preservation, “It also appears that the grace extended to our race that had fallen into sin consists not in the gift of something new, nor in the re-giving of something we had lost, but exclusively in the continuation of something that lay at the foundation of our creation.”7 Special grace has a specifically remedial purpose, as the prophet Isaiah puts it, in the day of redemption: “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy” (Is 35:5–6). So while the restorative and reconciling work of special grace and the preservative and sustaining work of common grace need to be properly distinguished, they are best understood as complementary. Special grace depends on common grace, for if humankind were no longer existing after the fall into sin, there would be no one to save.

There is also a critical explanatory function that common grace serves, specifically, to help us understand how what is good or true or beautiful in some sense can be said to exist in the non-Christian, fallen, and sinful world. There is, in fact, some virtue that can be found among the unregenerate, even if it is not goodness in its fullest sense, or entirely free from impurities, or soteriologically significant. On one level all that fallen human beings do falls short of the glory of God and merits punishment. But on another level, everything is not as bad as it could be, and there are degrees of corruption, impurity, and evil that allow for some relative and comparative discernment. So among sinners it is not the case that everything is as evil as it could possibly be. And among Christians, because sanctification is a temporal and progressive reality, what is done continues to be marred by imperfection, vice, and sin to a greater or lesser degree. In this way, it would be natural for someone to conclude, when comparing the confession of the church against the reality of the lives of its members, “the world turns out to be better than expected and the church worse than expected.”8

This point about the virtues of unbelievers, often described in terms of civil or moral good as opposed to Christian or salvific good, underscores a salient aspect of Kuyper’s treatment of common grace as it relates to the moral order and civil society. That is, Kuyper connects the doctrine of common grace to the broader natural-law tradition, with implications for a proper understanding of civil virtue and the functioning of the social order.

COMMON GRACE AND THE MORAL ORDER

Common grace is a multifaceted concept for Kuyper. Indeed, it reflects the diversity and scope of all of God’s creation itself. A critical aspect of that creation for our theological understanding, however, is the moral order. God has created human beings in his image, and this means in part that human beings are moral agents. In its essence, moral agency entails instructions and responsibilities. Humans have been placed as stewards over creation, and their responsibility includes adherence to the moral order that God has instituted.

A classic way of articulating this dynamic in Christianity is the rich and diverse tradition of natural law. God has created human beings in a certain way, with a particular set of powers, talents, skills, and habits, aimed at corresponding goods and ends. There is a law that governs the natures that God has created, a law that is fitted to and appropriate for all these different creatures, from stocks and stones to human beings and angels. A good way of understanding the natural law is as “the moral aspect of the penetrating arrow of general revelation.”9

All of this holds true for the state of humanity in its integrity, before the fall into sin and corruption. The fissure that sin creates affects every aspect of human existence, but it does not impact the moral demands that are placed upon humans by their nature and by God. That anything continues to exist of humanity after the fall is an act of grace, and that the moral obligations that govern human nature are not completely lost or eradicated is likewise evidence of God’s ongoing gracious activity. In this way, Kuyper writes that “thanks to common grace, the spiritual light has not totally departed from the soul’s eye of the sinner. And also, notwithstanding the curse that spread throughout creation, a speaking of God has survived within that creation, thanks to common grace.”10 Here Kuyper stands in line with Calvin, who, notwithstanding a strong accent on human depravity, can nevertheless insist that recognition of moral reality is “implanted in all men.”11 Moreover, the seeds of moral discernment in the human heart remain in effect even in the midst of the vicissitudes of life; neither war nor catastrophe nor theft nor human disagreement can alter these moral intuitions. Even those who “fight against manifest reason” in their unjust actions “do not nullify the original conception of equity” that is implanted within.12

We may therefore understand the existence and acknowledgement of natural law after the fall as an aspect of God’s broader sustaining and preserving grace.

This is a significant, and often controversial, teaching.13 And although Kuyper and the later neocalvinist tradition has often been described, and understood by its own devotees, as in opposition to natural law, Kuyper himself is quite clear: natural law is a manifestation of God’s common grace.14

As Kuyper well understood, moral law is the gracious means by which God governs the universe. Kuyper frequent speaks of moral law by using the grammar of “divine ordinance.” Expressing itself through various divine ordinances, the moral law is woven into the fabric of creation. In Our Program, Kuyper speaks of the “natural knowledge of God” accessible to all human beings and “universal moral law” that “was ingrained in man before his fall” and which, “however weakened after the fall, still speaks so sharply, so strongly, so clearly among even the most brutalized peoples and the most degenerate persons that Paul could write: ‘For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written in their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them.”15

This, of course, is none other than the language of natural law. Thus it is that Kuyper can speak of “the ordinances of God” which direct and preserve all of human life and form the underpinnings of common grace. These laws or ordinances, in turn, facilitate what Kuyper referred to as soevereiniteit in eigen kring, what we call “sphere sovereignty” or “structural pluralism,”16 developed at some length in his third Princeton lecture, “Calvinism and Politics.” Common grace, supported by divine ordinances, makes civil life possible, based on moral principle and shared morality. At bottom, justice is impossible without the moral law; in Kuyper’s thinking, justice derives from divine ordinances.

Lest he be misunderstood, Kuyper puts the matter of the natural moral law in perspective by understanding it in relation to human sinfulness:

Therefore the situation after the fall, also according to the testimony of the apostle, is not that this darkening changed all at once into pitch-black night, and all religious and moral awareness was totally deadened in sin, but to the contrary, that this otherwise necessary final impact of sin has been restrained, and thanks to that restraining there remains in people a consciousness of good and evil, an awareness of justice and injustice, a certain knowledge of what God wants and does not want. However dense and heavy the mists may be in which people are enveloped as sinners, the light did not abandon the struggle but continued to penetrate those mists.17

In discussing the connection between common grace and the moral order Kuyper often relies on the traditional language of “light” and “darkness,” which connects both with scriptural witness as well as classical natural- law thinking.

Kuyper is not, however, averse to explicit invocation of the language of natural law, which is characteristic of so many later Protestant figures. Part of the reason that the specific language of natural law in its moral sense fell into disuse among Protestants in this and following eras has to do with the rise of naturalism and rationalism. Nature came to be identified with that which was other than human, and even taken in materialistic or naturalistic dimensions. Thus, when Kuyper sometimes distinguishes between “natural laws” and “moral and spiritual law,” he can be understood to be referring to the “laws of nature” in their natural scientific sense rather than their moral and theological sense.18 In this way Kuyper notes in his Stone lectures that “as a Calvinist looks upon God’s decree as the foundation and origin of the natural laws, in the same manner also he finds in it the firm foundation and the origin of every moral and spiritual law.” He distinguishes here between natural laws referring to the laws that govern non-human existence, and the moral and spiritual laws that govern humans as moral and spiritual beings. Such distinctions are not to be radically opposed, however, as he continues to describe them as “both these, the natural as well as the spiritual laws, forming together one high order, which exists according to God’s command, and wherein God’s counsel will be accomplished in the consummation of His eternal, all-embracing plan.”19 When we understand that it is part of human nature to be a moral and spiritual being, we might likewise recognize how speaking of laws of nature with respect to humanity is also legitimate.

Because there is such a close connection between the natural, moral law and common grace, Kuyper often catachrestically uses the terms interchangeably. But more technically in Kuyper’s understanding we should recognize the ongoing preservation of human beings as morally responsible agents is a manifestation of his larger conception of common grace and not simply identifiable with it. Apart from the terminology, however, the substance of the connection between common grace and the moral order is explicit, as Kuyper affirms “a knowledge of God and of his justice that persisted in spite of our sin, and that was and is still maintained, due not to our efforts but despite our unrighteousness, by the common grace of God.”20

COMMON GRACE AND CIVIC RIGHTEOUSNESS

The knowledge of God and his justice, even as it is incomplete, fragmentary, and error-prone, preserves the existence and enables the flourishing of unregenerate humanity. There exists among unbelievers incredible genius, awe-inspiring artistry, and striking virtue. The truth of this “is immediately evident from the undeniable fact that in people like Plato and Aristotle, Kant and Darwin, stars of the first order have shined, geniuses of the highest caliber, people who expressed very profound ideas, even though they were not professing Christians. They did not have this genius from themselves, but received their talent from God who created them and equipped them for their intellectual labor.”21

As we have seen, whatever goodness there is among non-Christians exists because “the sinner still knows the justice of God, and the revelation of God in the human heart and in creation still continues to function even after the fall.”22 From this reality it follows that there is some level of goodness or righteousness that is possible for sinners to achieve on the basis of common grace. By definition this righteousness is not salvific. Common grace refers to that which is preserved and sustained in the face of sin, but not to that action of God which redeems, renews, and reconciles. That is the realm of special grace. Kuyper is at pains to show that whatever goodness perdures in the sinful world, it does not reach to what is truly good; hence, the identification of good works in the Heidelberg Catechism of those “which proceed from true faith, and are done according to the Law of God, unto His glory, and not such as rest on our own opinion or the commandments of men.”23

And yet there is some virtue or righteousness that is realized in the life of fallen humanity. Thus Kuyper affirms that “in the unconverted, all kinds of powers certainly function, albeit only partially in the direction ordained by God.”24 In part this aspect of the doctrine of common grace refers back to that explanatory function of the doctrine in Kuyper’s thought. It helps Christians to understand that when they look out into the world and examine history they find examples of what appears to be morally virtuous activity among sinners. The connection between common grace and civil righteousness enables Christians to affirm that there is good in some sense that is manifest in the life of the nations without confusing or conflating this with good in its fullest, most robust, or ultimate sense.

At the same time, the moral significance of this civic righteousness is ambiguous. The moral aspect of common grace is sufficient to allow there to be some expressions of civil good and social life, but its soteriological significance ends with human beings left “without excuse” (Ro 1:20). As with all good things, whatever good is in such civic righteousness is in the final analysis to be attributed to God rather than to human initiative. And because of the pervasiveness of fallen humanity’s sinfulness, Kuyper holds to the fundamental Reformed conviction that of its own accord humanity would increase in sin rather than in virtue. “Common grace is still continually at work to partially redirect into the right direction all kinds of powers and activities within him,” writes Kuyper of unregenerate man, “that left alone would head entirely into sin.”25

So while Kuyper is sure to recognize and celebrate that there are some vestiges and elements of goodness or righteousness that persist among sinful humans, he is likewise keen to properly categorize and relativize such goodness. Civic righteousness truly exists, but it is not salvific; it is a result of God’s divine graciousness rather than innate human goodness; it falls short of true virtue and Christian righteousness; and it is rather less common than we might wish. There is this consistent dynamic: God continues to graciously offer and give good gifts to his creatures, even while those creatures persist in making ill use of those gifts and turning those gifts to bad ends: “The light of truth has definitely not retreated altogether but has continued to shine. It is strictly due to us that the light does not penetrate to our soul’s eye.”26 Or as Kuyper concludes: “Common grace is present, but we have rejected it.”27 It is true that not all those uses and ends are as bad as they could possibly be; they may even be considered relatively good in some sense. And yet we must ultimately recognize that this situation cannot continue forever.

COMMON GRACE AND SOCIAL ORDER

One of Kuyper’s great insights in his treatment of common grace is that even in the midst of such ambivalence, amidst the good and the evil that exist in this life, some degree of not only individual virtue but also social development is realized. God’s preserving work of common grace helps us explain both civic righteousness and the ongoing realities of social life. Common grace makes individual life as well as social flourishing possible, even if these are constrained by sin and cannot reach their eschatological fullness.

The final volume of his trilogy on common grace focuses specifically on working out the implications of these realities for social life. For Kuyper, the realities of family and work are embedded in the creation order. As such, they are preserved in the context of sinfulness, but are not brought into existence anew. Likewise, the church could in some sense be said to be present wherever there are children of God, whether in the state of integrity or after corruption. But the church as an institution specifically formed around special grace is a feature of the post-fall situation. Similarly for Kuyper, there may be a sense in which political life could be said to exist in the primal condition, but it is only after the fall in sin that government takes on its distinctive character as a coercive power for the administration of civil justice.28 The state is, in this sense, the institution of common grace par excellence. It provides a curb on social evil, and a check on sinful ambition.

This role is essential for all of human society, whether characterized as Christian or not. This is why the state is an institution of common grace: “The essential character of government as such does not lie in the fact that canals are dug, railways built, and so forth, but in the sovereign right to compel subversives by force and if necessary subdue them with the sword.”29 For Kuyper the state is a necessary institution for the preservation of social life in the fallen world. But as his distinction between sphere sovereignty and state sovereignty indicates, even if the government is a particularly salient example of a common-grace institution, it is not itself identical with all of social life and is in fact sharply limited by the legitimate and warranted functions and roles of other institutions.30 Two examples of special notice are the family and work, realities which are embedded in the nature of creation and reaffirmed in the curse and promise.

In a remarkable treatment of Adam and Eve’s fall into sin and the divine discourse in Genesis 3, Kuyper underscores the fundamental functions of procreation in marriage and co-creation in work. When God demurs from striking down Adam and Eve immediately, he preserves them in life in the face of death. As Kuyper observes, “Over against death stands life; and for life two things are necessary, namely, the emergence of life and the maintenance of life.”31 Family and procreation represent the basis for the emergence of human life, while work and co-creation represent the basis for the maintenance of life.

In an incisive treatment of the curse and promise to Eve and Adam, Kuyper highlights the foundation of grace that provides for the ongoing existence of and care for human life. To the woman God says, “in pain you shall bring forth children” (Ge 3:16). The element of the curse is present with the imposition of painfulness; but the element of grace is present in the promise: “you shall bring forth children.” Despite their sinfulness and the threat of death that they deserve, Adam and Eve will have children and humanity will continue to exist. The woman becomes Eve, mother of all the living, a promise of life in the face of sin, death, and damnation. “Had absolute death set in,” writes Kuyper, “then the mother in Eve, from which our entire human race had to come, would be closed forever. And behold, the opposite happens: the womb of all human life is opened up. The Lord says, ‘You shall bring forth children.’ This, if you will, is the word of creation to which we and everyone called human owe our being. Here, therefore, life instead of death is at work.”32

The same is true for Adam and the productive labor that is necessary for the maintenance of human society. God says to Adam, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread” (Ge 3:19). The element of the curse is present in that work now has become toilsome and troublesome, painful and difficult. But the element of grace shines through in the promise: “You shall eat bread.” So just as God works through procreation to guarantee that human beings will continue to exist, God promises that through work human beings will get their daily bread. As Kuyper observes, “Hunger brings death, but bread maintains life. To him who is about to die, it should be said, ‘Bread will be taken away from you and hunger shall become your death.’ But now the opposite is said: ‘You shall eat bread.’ And what does this say other than that life will not immediately drain away into death, but that it will be nourished and maintained.”33

Through spheres like the state, family, and work God’s common grace is present to preserve, protect, and promote social life.

CONCLUSION

The continued existence and provision for humanity after the fall into sin is a critical argument in favor of Kuyper’s doctrine of common grace. We might explore this as a basic, and from Kuyper’s perspective undeniable, point of departure for the validity of the doctrine.

After the fall into sin, it is on the one hand clear that humanity continues to exist, but that it does so not on the basis of any inherent merit or desert. God deigns to forbear, and his patience is an unmerited gift. It seems entirely appropriate to describe this divine preservation as grace. “In the day when Adam and his wife ate of the forbidden tree, they did not die, which would have happened if no grace had been granted them,” concludes Kuyper.34 Likewise, this grace is not limited to a chosen few. It applies to everyone who lives, whether or not they will ultimately be saved or damned. It again seems entirely appropriate to identify the extension of such graciousness to everyone as common.

Acknowledgment of the cogency of such reasoning does not entail that one accedes to every aspect of Kuyper’s own exposition of the doctrine of common grace, however. And in fact Kuyper’s treatment, both in general and in its specifics, has engendered a significant amount of controversy, even becoming the occasion for ecclesiastical split. Along with the transmission of Kuyper’s extensive work on the doctrine a number of other important materials—critical, constructive, as well as corrective—are coming into availability in English as well.35

The goal of this current translation project is to expose new audiences to Kuyper’s many-faceted thought. Kuyper’s broader project with respect to common grace may not demand assent; it does demand attention. Much of his treatment is constructive, speculative, and in some cases idiosyncratic. Some of the ways he explicates his understanding of common grace is particularly marked by his own context, biases, and presuppositions. Indeed, affirmation of the general thrust of Kuyper’s purposes in his treatment of common grace does not mean that there must be adherence to every jot and tittle of his thought. Regardless of what we find today to be valuable, debatable, or detestable about Kuyper’s thought, his work in these volumes demonstrates his genius and why it has been found to be so inspirational for more than a century. Kuyper’s vision is comprehensive and compelling, and one that has deep lessons for us today. Common grace works as far as the curse is found:

Common grace extends over our entire human life, in all its manifestations. There is a common grace that manifests itself in order and law; there is a common grace that manifests itself in prosperity and affluence; there is a common grace that becomes visible in the healthy development of strength and heroic courage of a nation; there is a common grace that shines in the development of science and art; there is a common grace that enriches a nation through inventiveness in enterprise and commerce; there is a common grace that strengthens the domestic and moral life; and finally there is a common grace that protects the religious life against an excessive degeneration.36

This is a refreshing and bracing perspective, especially in a world where the disagreements between different confessions and creeds are increasingly pronounced. Common grace can help us remember that amidst all of the dynamic and sometimes dizzying diversity in human existence, there exists a deep unity and solidarity that defines us as human beings created in the image of God. This vision offers a corrective to idols and ideologies of our day that threaten to overwhelm or enslave us, and provides a constructive way forward as faithful disciples of Jesus Christ.

Jordan J. Ballor

J. Daryl Charles

VOLUME INTRODUCTION

NOT SO COMMON

Abraham Kuyper’s Common Grace is a vast, rich work comprising three parts. The volume you now hold, the second, is aptly titled “Doctrinal.” Here we see Kuyper in his element. His academic training was as a theologian, and among his many other roles he taught theology at the Free University of Amsterdam. Kuyper’s major academic work was his three-volume Encyclopedia of Sacred Theology, an extraordinary piece of writing through which we see his rigor and creativity as a theologian. It is well known that Kuyper’s gifts and calling took him into virtually every field of practical and academic life; there is hardly anything about which he did not write. However, it seems that the role of theologian remained central to his identity, and we certainly witness that dimension in volume 2 of Common Grace, in which he covers the theology of common grace.

DOCTRINE BY WAY OF SCRIPTURE

As we move into the second volume of Common Grace it is worth remembering that it is preceded by another volume—a Scripture-focused one. The first volume, though called “Historical,” could easily be titled “Biblical,” because it deals with the biblical story from creation to the second coming. The importance of this can easily be missed. We live in a day when many works of theology and Christian scholarship engage only minimally with Scripture, if at all. Not so with Kuyper. His entire first volume is devoted to the biblical foundations for common grace, and he insists on taking that journey before setting forth the doctrinal framework. Even in the second volume of Common Grace, the reader will be impressed by Kuyper’s constant return to Scripture. His is a model we need to recover. If we believe with Kuyper that Scripture is God’s authoritative Word for all of life, then his constant moving back and forth to and from Scripture must be essential in our project of Christian scholarship. As Kuyper asserts, “A man walks a straight path only if, gratefully accepting the light God has given, he accepts as dogma or doctrine what God has revealed to us in his Word concerning … mystery.”1

The reader will encounter in volume 2 of Common Grace discussions of a number of different doctrinal points. These range from divine action and the distinction between immediate and mediate action by God, to the transcendence and immanence of God. Kuyper also presents a thought-provoking discussion of God’s providence and how common grace should influence that doctrine. The doctrines of creation and the fall are in the foreground. Kuyper is fascinating in that he traces the origins of the fall to the spirit world and then explores the role of the spirit world in common grace, noting that “these millions and millions of spirits are instruments God uses in his governance of this world.”2 He is also refreshing in the emphasis he places on the incarnation. And since common grace enables the progress of history, it is not surprising that eschatology enters into the debate. Though he (perhaps wrongly) holds to the idea of the destruction of everything before recreation, he nevertheless rightly affirms a strong doctrine of continuity between the old and the new creation: “And when at the end of the ages that healing process will have run its full course, then it is not the first world that will be destroyed in order to be replaced by a second world, but it will be the age-old world of Adam, created by God once long ago, and corrupted by us, saved in Christ, that will appear to have carried within itself such hidden powers that this very world itself will one day stand before God in glory, to magnify his majesty.”3

While Kuyper never confuses doctrine with a living relationship with the Creator, he takes doctrine—what we believe about God and God’s relationship to his world—with the utmost seriousness and rightly believes that it can direct us in our lives and in our complex, modern societies. In his words, “Dogmas, after all, are not the result of clever arguments, but doctrines that provide an explanation concerning the mighty issues at the foundation of our human existence that impinge irresistibly upon anyone who thinks and reflects and refuses to close his or her eyes to reality.”4 He does not lose sight of the glory of God as the focus of all of life and creation, and in keeping with that vision he clearly articulates the characteristic Reformed emphasis on the sovereignty of the triune God. Romans 11:36, which reads “From him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen” [NIV], could easily serve as an epigraph for the work of Kuyper. Creation finds its meaning in the glory of God, and as this is taken seriously, creation is illumined so that we can see God working through his handiwork.

To rightly understand creation, however, special revelation is necessary. John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus is the light of the world. Johan Georg Hamann, a great Christian philosopher who was a contemporary and perceptive critic of Immanuel Kant, asserted that, “All the colors of this most beautiful world grow pale once you extinguish its light, the firstborn of creation.”5 Kuyper would have said a hearty “amen!” to this. As Kuyper writes, “Everything in all of creation that lives or breathes is placed in service to the self-glorification of the triune God.”6 He was well aware that much in life will remain mysterious, but he still devoted considerable energy toward allowing the light of Christ to shine as fully and intensely as possible on the world around him. In the second volume of Common Grace, he brings every major locus of doctrine into play, relating all of these to the titular topic. Yet he also regularly slips into application. One gets a sense of Christ and Scripture as a floodlight illuminating the entire field of creation. Thus it is natural that Kuyper can’t stay away from practical application. Indeed, there are discussions of topics ranging from education, art, clothing, to insurance and—surprisingly—smallpox vaccinations!

PUBLIC THEOLOGY FOR THEN AND NOW

Kuyper’s writing manifests what we might call a contextual sense of doctrine. He recognized that different times call for different emphases doctrinally. Though he had no interest in adjusting doctrine to the zeitgeist of his day, neither did he have any interest in a petrified Reformed Christianity stuck in the sixteenth century. Kuyper sought to preserve the heart of the Reformed tradition while taking semper reformanda seriously. At several points in volume 2 of Common Grace, he notes the deficiencies of earlier Reformed theologians, especially in relation to common grace, and proposes ways to develop Reformed doctrine further. This is not to suggest that he believed truth changes, but rather that it needs to be contextualized for different times and places. Kuyper himself wrote a book on the angels of God, a topic discussed several times in this volume, but he himself noted that in his day there was no longer the same interest in angels that there was in the medieval era.

On the other hand, a robust doctrine of common grace was needed in Kuyper’s day. He lived when modernism was sweeping across Europe, and he recognized that its comprehensive vision could only be met by a correspondingly comprehensive Christian vision. Central to such a vision for Kuyper was a theology of common grace. In this belief Kuyper was undoubtedly correct, and it is at least as true in our day as his, though we, unlike him, live amidst the unravelling of modernism. Many of the fault lines in the modernist geography are working themselves out in our fast-changing, bewildering global context. Mark Lilla, in his important book The Stillborn God: Religion, Politics, and the Modern West, notes that the twilight of the idols—or what has been called the “death of God”—has been postponed. Religion has made a remarkable and unexpected comeback in our modern world. Lilla argues that the actual choice we face today is not between past and present but between two great traditions, two antithetical ways of viewing the human mystery. The one is modernism; the other is that of Christian political theology.7 The problem, according to Lilla, is that we have forgotten just what the tradition of Christian political thought entails.

Though Kuyper does not use the language of political theology, the parallels between his work and Lilla are remarkable. Kuyper, his predecessors, and his followers never ceased to confront their hearers with the choice between the French Revolution’s ideals and the gospel. Lilla speaks comparably of a great separation in the West. What Lilla notes of other theologians is certainly true of Kuyper: “To think that the West could produce its own political theology, in a thoroughly modern vein, is surprising and unsettling. More unsettling still is the fact that these new political theologians produced original and challenging works not to be dismissed lightly.”8

This publication of Kuyper’s major public theology works in English is a significant contribution toward helping the West recover its legacy of Christian public thought. The issues we struggle with in what Lilla calls the postponement of the twilight of idols are precisely the issues that Kuyper wrestled with in his Dutch and European contexts—issues like the public role of religion, genuine societal pluralism, justice for all, faith-based initiatives, and education. Kuyper can help us not only to recover our memory, but also to find resources with which to explore the pressing issues of our day in fresh and compelling ways.

And it is important to note that Kuyper does this from a firm base in Christian doctrine. Ernest Gellner perceptively observed in 1992 that, “In North America, religious attendance is high, but religion celebrates a shared cult of the American way of life, rather than insisting on distinctions of theology or church organization, as once it did.”9 He damningly notes that, “Christian doctrine is bowdlerized by its own theologians, and deep, literal conviction is not conspicuous by its presence.”10 On the other hand, he also noted one thing that resisted (and still resists) secularization: “But there is one very real, dramatic and conspicuous exception to all this: Islam. To say that secularization prevails in Islam is not contentious. It is simply false. Islam is as strong now as it was a century ago. In some ways, it is probably much stronger.”11 Kuyper, unlike the theologians Gellner refers to here, holds fast to Christian doctrine in his writing and unpacks it critically in relation to modernism. Thus, Christ and culture are integrally related in his work. Kuyper also develops a Christian, pluralist societal philosophy that resists secularization; yet it is one markedly different from Islam. Kuyper does all this by journeying at length through the doctrine of common grace.

It may seem laughable in our present media-dominated context to imagine that a long, three volume exposition of doctrine, written by a thoroughly orthodox Reformed theologian in another place and time, might hold vital clues for life today. Indeed, Common Grace was written as newspaper articles, published week by week over six years in his newspaper, De Heraut, and some perseverance is required to work through them. But this says far more about our context, dominated as it is by tweets and short attention spans, than it does about Kuyper’s thought. Nevertheless, Common Grace makes for compelling reading, and not least this second volume. As Kuyper synthesizes the biblical data doctrinally, volume 2 becomes, in many ways, the heart of Common Grace.

WHAT DOES COMMON GRACE ENTAIL?

Kuyper’s creativity as a theologian is remarkable. Readers may be surprised at how many areas he engages with in his articulation of the doctrine of common grace. His work cries out for serious dialogue. But what does common grace really entail? It means that God relates to the whole of his good, but fallen, creation with grace. In Dutch, as in English, common can have pejorative connotations, but that is not the meaning Kuyper aims for. Common can also mean universal or general. Grace—undeserved mercy—relates to the whole of creation. Hence the title of this introduction: “Not So Common!”

EVIL RESTRAINED

The engine of a Christian worldview is its understanding of how nature relates to grace, and Kuyper rightly asserts that, “Common grace touches on the relationship between nature and grace or, if you will … the relationship between church and world, between theology and secular scholarship, between our old man and our new man—or also, if we may express it thus, between our self and Christ, between our self and us ourselves.”12 Common grace alerts us to the fact that after the fall and despite the curse under which the creation languishes, God never for a moment gives up on his creation. By his grace, he restrains its tendencies toward evil and sin. Kuyper never blurs the boundary between the believer and the unbeliever, between regenerate and unregenerate. Regeneration comes from God’s particulargrace; the division between saved and unsaved is absolute. Yet Kuyper never makes the mistake of drawing the dividing line of antithesis—the great struggle between the kingdom of God and that of darkness—between the church and the world. The antithesis runs through every aspect of life, and the struggle it represents is at work in every human heart and in every human institution. Particular grace changes the direction of what Kuyper calls the “core” of the self so that a person may live in faith, but there is more to the self than its core. A person can be regenerate without grasping the functions of faith for all dimensions of his or her life. Such a person can continue to enact pre-conversion perspectives in areas of life.

Thus Kuyper can reflect honestly and openly on why non-Christians sometimes behave far better than Christians and why Christians often fail to live up to their confession. Consider the years of apartheid in South Africa: At least sixty percent of the country claimed to be Christian, but many white South Africans were, in practice, racist. At the same time the struggle against apartheid was often led—sacrificially—by non-Christians or even atheists. How was this possible? Such things are possible because of God’s common grace, grace extended to all people and to the whole creation. This can also be attributed to the fact that Christian conversion is only a beginning, not an end. It needs to be followed by sanctification, which Christians reach to varying degrees.

We further see that God never gives up on his purpose for creation or ceases moving it toward the goal he set for it when he made it. History has a purpose, and Kuyper unashamedly articulates this in terms of progress, advocating for a positive view of cultural advancement. Sin may and does distort this in myriad ways—and indeed, Kuyper’s view is itself problematic at points, especially concerning his racial prejudices—but common grace ensures that there is normative development in history as the world moves toward the goal God set for it. Common grace thus not only holds back evil but simultaneously enables progress.

A remarkable aspect of this volume is Kuyper’s exploration of the contrast between the curse placed on creation and God’s continual grace shown toward the same creation. With Kuyper we might reflect on whether this is a contradiction. Kuyper rightly argues that it is not. Evil requires punishment, but death, the symbol of the curse, remains the great enemy for both God and humankind. Indeed, redemption is God’s project to erase evil from his creation and to lead it to the destiny he intended for it. For Kuyper, common grace is the indispensable background that makes such redemption possible.

THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD

Kuyper repeatedly urges us to use all legitimate means and opportunities provided through common grace to combat sin and misery, and thereby to acknowledge God wherever we find his grace in operation. Thus we must not, for example, neglect the university, for it is one of the major ways of advancing common grace and reducing misery. Combating sin and misery is a comprehensive calling; it includes the raising of children, ensuring people have adequate clothing, health care and housing for all, fostering neighborliness and vibrant, rich community. Everything that common grace puts at our disposal—farming, industry, trade, everything that adds to the quality of life and makes it more noble—must be appropriated to oppose sin and misery.

In Kuyper’s writings we note a resistance to a purely individual account of sin, evil, and common grace. An organic metaphor is central to much of Kuyper’s thought and he rightly insists that we think of humans not merely individually but also corporately, as an organism. On the imago dei, for example, Kuyper affirms that each individual is created in the image of God but also argues that such is God’s greatness that we are all needed to genuinely image God in his creation. So too with suffering. Some suffering is indeed related to personal sin, but much is not. One of Kuyper’s arguments in favor of insurance is that it helps alleviate much unnecessary and undeserved suffering that results simply from being part of humanity. The Kuyperian tradition is well-known for setting up Christian institutions such as schools, political parties, labor unions, and so on. This is a truly missional vision of the people of God contributing to the flourishing of all, and it is one that we need to recover. Indeed, one of Kuyper’s great concerns is to allow the leaven of the gospel to penetrate every aspect of our lives. If God never gives up on his creation, how can we?

Kuyper is insightful in his recognition that there are a number of different Christian perspectives on the relationship between Christianity and culture—whether Anabaptist, Roman Catholic, or Reformed—and he realizes that these differences matter. They profoundly shape Christian thought and practice, especially in the public domains of life. Yet for Kuyper, the doctrine of common grace creates a barrier against any view that would restrict Christian involvement to the sphere of the church. Christ governs common grace, and “this judges every perspective that sees Christianity as a religion floating atop the waters of history like an oil slick; as if the Christian church had to hide itself in this world like a hermit, without maintaining a connection with the life of that world.”13 We find Kuyper’s historically sensitive philosophy of sphere sovereignty, for example, in his statement that, “What we today mean by the church—that is, an organization separate from the household, the family, and civil society and hence independent with its own boundary and enclosed within its own sphere, with its own offices and ministries, with its own law and regulations, with its own property and its own symbol—did not come into being until after Jesus’ ascension, … the church does not emerge as independent world church until after the day of Pentecost.”14 Some Kuyperians